Case Number 09080: Small Claims Court

DEATH IN GAZA

The Charge

Militants. Suicide bombers. Innocent victims.

The Case

In one of Death in Gaza's many disconcerting sequences, we're at first
delighted by a bright and precocious four- or five-year-old Palestinian girl
named Ayyad, who lives in poverty with her family in the decimated city of Rafah
in south Gaza. Ayyad is a little girl like any other: innocent, charming, and
cute. Director James Miller's camera drinks her in as she talks to journalist
Saira Shah. And then we're sucker-punched by the child's matter-of-fact
declaration that she doesn't like Jews because they're dogs. "What would
cause someone to hate so much that they're willing to die in order to
kill?" asks Shah near the beginning of the documentary. It's a question too
broad to be answered by an 80-minute movie. But Death in Gaza succeeds in
giving us a glimpse of the tragic, deep-seated Palestinian culture of rage and
hatred, and its infusion into children in their earliest years of
development.

The movie opens and closes on May 2, 2003, the day that James Miller was
gunned down by an Israeli soldier on a nighttime patrol in Rafah. In between,
we're allowed a glimpse of the lives of Palestinian children caught in this war
zone, and their indoctrination into the politics of hate. The picture was to be
the first of many by the production company formed by Miller and Shah after the
huge success of Beneath the Veil and Unholy War, two gripping
pieces on Afghanistan, made for CNN. It was to be followed by a companion piece
that would trace the lives of Israeli children. Miller's death changed all that.
The movie became not only the tale of three Palestinian children, but also the
tale of Miller's tragic end in the crossfire. Death -- the real subject of the
film -- reached outside of the frame in which Miller and his crew tried to place
it, and touched them personally. The picture that the director's colleagues
assembled in order to honor him is blunt, unflinching, and achingly human. It
succeeds in attaching real human faces to a conflict that is overwhelming and
seems hopelessly irresolvable.

Death in Gaza's primary subject is a 12-year-old boy named Ahmed. His
best friend, Mohammed, apes everything he does. They seem like normal,
sneaker-footed, T-shirted boys, except that they play games like "Jews and
Arabs" -- it's much like "Cowboys and Indians" except that one
wins by dying. Ahmed prays each afternoon at the mosque, side-by-side with the
militants engaged in street battles with the Israeli military. He becomes a
look-out for them in the dangerous streets. In perhaps the most horrifying
sequence in the picture, he's in a cloistered room with masked militants.
"Let's see what you look like with a rocket-launcher," one of them
says, before they pose the boy with one atop his shoulder. It's a chilling
moment, draped in death. As Mohammed casually observes at one point in the
movie, "martyrdom's not just for grown-ups."

The centrality of death in the lives of these children is brought home in a
brief but bloody sequence about Salem, a 14-year-old shot and killed while
chucking rocks at an Israeli tank pinned by a mob in Rafah's narrow streets. He
becomes a martyr, and is buried in a lavish ceremony. His image is added to one
of the many posters that adorn the city's walls and desolate buildings,
celebrating martyrs. "They're outgunned by the Israelis," Shah
observes in voice-over, "so they've turned death into victory."

The other subject of the film is Najla, a bright 16-year-old girl who dreams
of becoming a lawyer so she can bring justice to her people. At one point, we
watch her in a one-room school house, being taught the falsehood that a country
called Palestine existed before Israeli aggression in 1967. She and her sister
talk repeatedly of Israeli cowardice. Their observations are wrong-headed but
inevitable, grounded in the very real hardship in which they live day to day.
The desolation of their lives and the hate with which they've been inculcated
leaves us weary and pessimistic.

It is while trying to leave Najla's house one night as Israeli soldiers are
patrolling and seeking out underground weapons caches that Miller is gunned
down. The soldier is a Bedouin Arab and Israeli citizen, revealing the deep
complexity of a political conflict that involves race but can't be divided
neatly along racial lines. The shot that killed Miller was unprovoked. We're
told by Shah that the soldier who pulled the trigger was found guilty by an
Israeli military court of violating protocols for returning fire, but was never
punished (for more information, follow the link to the Justice for James Miller
web site included in the "Accomplices" section of this review).

Miller's instantaneous death is captured by one of his crew shooting from
the porch of Najla's house. The incident is draped in darkness, sparing us the
grisly visual details. The moment remains sobering and powerful, though, a
reminder that Death rules both the day and night on the Gaza strip. Its vicious
cycle is unbreakable; no one is safe. Despite this glum outcome, the film ends
with one tiny glimmer of hope: Miller's death, we're told, has shaken Ahmed,
who'd come to admire the foreign journalist. He's severed ties with the masked
militants and dreams of becoming a photographer.

The DVD's transfer comes from a variety of video sources. Quality varies
depending on the source. Some shots are crisp with vibrant, accurate colors.
Others -- like nighttime sequences -- are grainy, or sport washed-out colors.
Either way, transfer-related flaws are minimal because the sources are presented
warts and all without the combing and edge enhancement that can create egregious
video artifacts. Aesthetically, the limitations of some of the source materials
give the documentary a gritty immediacy.

The stereo audio mix is perfectly acceptable for the source. On-the-street
dialogue and sound is clean, as is Saira Shah's voiceover narration.

The disc contains three featurettes to supplement the main program.

Remembering James Miller (7:04) This piece is constructed of
interviews with Sophie Miller (James's widow), Saira Shah, and some of Miller's
other colleagues on Beneath the Veil, Unholy War, and other pieces
he worked on during his too-brief career. The participants discuss Miller's
passion for "bearing witness" to suffering and death.

James Miller Tribute Compilation (28:09) This is a highlight
reel of footage from Miller's various projects from Unholy War to
Death in Gaza.

The Making of Death in Gaza (11:03) The piece begins
with Miller and Shah's formation of a production company after making Beneath
the Veil and Unholy War for CNN. It discusses how Death in
Gaza was originally to be called Learning to Hate, and was going to
be followed by a second, parallel film about Israeli children.

The context provided by these supplements is welcome, but unnecessary.
Death in Gaza is a powerful stand-alone piece that reveals the humanity
of its subjects without dumbing down the serpentine regional politics. It's also
a sad and gripping tribute to the promising and talented filmmaker whose death
is its subject. Not guilty.